Pronouncing Foreign Words In Football

[Guest Boyo]

Does anyone else find that SSN girl who pronounces all the foreign names with the correct inflections really annoying?

 

I shouldn't find it annoying, as she's doing her job perfectly, plus she's as hot as they come, so my patience is naturally longer for her, but just say "World Cup", love, not always "Coppa doh Moooooooooooooondoh".

 

Cheers!

[Guest Jayfunk]

Does anyone else find that SSN girl who pronounces all the foreign names with the correct inflections really annoying?

 

I shouldn't find it annoying, as she's doing her job perfectly, plus she's as hot as they come, so my patience is naturally longer for her, but just say "World Cup", love, not always "Coppa doh Moooooooooooooondoh".

 

Cheers!

try watching german football on itv 4 god knows how she is on TV

[Guest John Hancock]

I'm all for pronouncing people's names correctly, and it's always appreciated when people get member's of my family's names right in the simple ways, like knowing that a G in Dutch is an H in English, or that a Ö in German is a ER/UR in English, or all the various silent letters in French or whatever, but I think there's a difference between pronouncing someone's name properly and pronouncing it in a ludicrous accent. Tee-airy On-ree doesn't have to be Tear-hrree 'OGH-hrree (I now realise it's very hard to type certain European sounds in English). Eden Hazard is neither "Ed-en Haz-ad" nor "Ay-do'gh 'Ah-zaaaaa".

 

You're English, it's Paris, not Paree.

Edited July 19, 2014 by John Hancock

[Guest Boyo]

You must be talking about Aiden Azzar :P.

 

Cheers!

[Guest John Hancock]

Yeah, I'd go for "Aiden Azzar" as being the perfect middle ground for English people. It demonstrates you get the rules, but aren't just being silly. Pretty much every French, German or Dutch name falls into that category of there being an acceptable English way of pronouncing it which is neither just saying it phonetically or pronouncing like you aren't English.

 

Like, next year, I'd expect everyone to be calling Louis van Gaal "Louis van Haal" out of some vague tip of the hat to how Dutch Gs work. If you're actually speaking Dutch, if doesn't really sound like that, but it would be so jarring to switch from a Manchester accent (or a London/Birmingham/Newcastle/Thai accent, United fans being what they are) to a Dutch one for the sake of one word that it would force anyone listening to vomit in their mouth out of confusion.

[Chris2K 176]

James Rodriguez's name during the World Cup was a bit annoying. From the looks of it the BBC had been instructed (correctly) to call him "Ham-ez" but every ITV commentator stuck to their guns and called him "James". Another reason why the BBC are better of course.

[Guest John Hancock]

The James thing didn't really both me, it's an established English name, so I think it's acceptable to pronounce it in English. It's like MMA fans calling Georges St-Pierre "George", or my personal experiences with the Robert/Hobair/Horbert business, I think, if it's a name that exists in your language, it's okay to pronounce it in your language.

 

The toughest with the Spanish J is Jose Mourinho. Everyone thinks they're the champ because they're saying "hoe-say" like a Spaniard, but he's Portuguese, so it's just regular "jos-say".

[Guest Boyo]

Am I correct in thinking if a Dutch person said "Louis Van Gaal" to you, in Dutch, the "Dutch G" would result in you covered in their spit?

 

Bit like a "Welsh double L".

 

Louis Van HHHHHHock-a-loogie-aal

 

Cheers!

[Guest John Hancock]

Yeah, kind of, although not as aggressively as the Dutch "GH", like the end of "van Gogh", which is just a nightmare. "Gaal", in Dutch, in phonetic English, would be, like, "Hchowl". It starts with that phlegm noise, and rhymes with "howl" with a very soft "l" sound.

[Guest Drake]

The thing about James is that he specifically wants to be called 'HAAA-mez', not James as in 'LeBron James', so IMO it's a bit different.

[Guest John Hancock]

If he's specifically said that, it fair enough, that's like a transexual pronoun change thing, like, if you really want to be called that, fine, everyone should call you that.

[Ryan 188]

I don't know which commentator it is, it might be Martin Tyler, who says things like Cathorla instead of Cazorla, Bathalona instead of Barcelona, Valenthia instead of Valencia, and it really bugs the sh*t out of me. Maybe that's how they say it in Spain but he's English on English TV, he needs to cut it out.

[Guest Boyo]

Yes I think that is Tyler who does that and it nags me too. I don't mind the "Cathorla" one as much, because that's someone's name and Tyler may have asked him how to pronounce it. The "Bathalona" one irks me though. It's "Bar-Sa-Lona" in the UK, that's how we say it. Get outta here, Tyler.

 

Out of the names I try to pronounce correctly, I like to get "Roz-its-key" (Rosicky), "Ham-ez" Rodriguez, and "Poy-yet" (Poyet) right.

 

I'm not getting hung up on a commentator saying, for example, Alex "Huh-Lebb" when the Belorussian way was "Hock-a-loogie-Lebb".

 

On a similar note, but reversed, I remember Phil Jagielka on Goals on Sunday saying his name was pronounced "Yag-Yelka" in Polish, and that's how you pronounce it, so there. Completely ignored by everyone ever since :P.

 

Cheers!

[Ryan 188]

People who pronounce Rosicky as "Rosh-itsky" get on my nerves too, I'm looking at you Tyler...

 

Yag-ielka annoys me too, i don't care if thats the way you say it, its annoying :lol

 

Didier Drogba... Drog-ba, not Drogbaaaarrrr Martin you fool. Same with Oscar, or how Martin says it... Oscaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

David Pleat is the worst for mispronouncing players names, he honest to god gets every single name wrong, even the simple ones.

 

Petr Cech, it's Pet-er not Peter. If he was English it would be Peter, but he's not, so it's not.

[dsrchris 190]

David Pleat is the worst for mispronouncing players names, he honest to god gets every single name wrong, even the simple ones.

 

Petr Cech, it's Pet-er not Peter. If he was English it would be Peter, but he's not, so it's not.

 

But he's English on English TV, surely it should be "Peter"? :lol

[Ryan 188]

No :lol

 

An Arsenal player yesterday called Jon Toral, the commentator pronounced it as "Yon" because thats how its pronounced, and he was an English guy on English TV and he still said it how it is, so it should be the same with Petr Cech :lol

[dsrchris 190]

And Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, and Cazorla? :D

[Ryan 188]

...IT'S ANNOYING! :lol

[Guest Drake]

:lol :lol

 

This has to be one of the best threads ever in this forum. I'm laughing alone in front of my computer spelling all the names they way everyone thinks/wants them to be said.

[Guest Boyo]

Drake, phonetically, (for us English chumps), how do you say these in Spanish:

 

Xisco

Arteta

Sergio Canales

Koke

 

Cheers!

[Guest John Hancock]

Can I add Xavi and Busquets to this list. The Spanish X in general, I have no idea.

 

I do know one Spanish pronunciation thing that no English commentators do though. I'd never heard a single English commentator roll their double-rs, like in "Torres". It's not "Toh-rez", it's "Torlrles".

[Ryan 188]

I would have thought Arteta is the same?

[Guest Boyo]

Yeah it's largely going to be the same, but I'm curious about inflection:

 

English: Are-Tetta

 

But would Spanish be "Are-tey-tah", or something along those lines? I remember seeing a YouTube where a Spanish (speaking at least) commentator rolled the RRRRR.

 

Cheers!

[Ryan 188]

Adebayor is another one, think it's Pleat who's guilty of calling him Ade-Bayah.

[Guest John Hancock]

As far as I know, you only roll the R if it's doubled. "RR" is it's own letter Spanish, like it goes "P Q R RR S T", and it's pronounced with a roll. LL is it's own letter too, as is CH and Ñ.

 

I'm going to have to give some of these French ones to my Mum next time I talk to her. I think Adebayor is just "Add-ee-bi-or" though.

Edited July 20, 2014 by John Hancock